“In the Mood”—Glenn Miller (1939)
¡°In the Mood¡±¡ªGlenn Miller (1939)
Added to the National Recording Registry: 2004
Essay by Cary O¡¯Dell
Glenn Miller
Original release label
¡°Sun Valley Serenade¡±
Though Glenn Miller and His Orchestra¡¯s well-known, robust and swinging hit ¡°In the Mood¡±
was recorded in 1939 (and was written even earlier), it has since come to symbolize the 1940s,
World War II, and the entire Big Band Era. Its resounding success¡ªbecoming a hit twice, once
in 1940 and again in 1943¡ªand its frequent reprisal by other artists has solidified it as a timetraversing classic.
Covered innumerable times, ¡°In the Mood¡± has endured in two versions, its original instrumental
(the specific recording added to the Registry in 2004) and a version with lyrics. The music was
written (or written down) by Joe Garland, a Tin Pan Alley tunesmith who also composed ¡°Leap
Frog¡± for Les Brown and his band. The lyrics are by Andy Razaf who would also contribute the
words to ¡°Ain¡¯t Misbehavin¡¯¡± and ¡°Honeysuckle Rose.¡±
For as much as it was an original work, ¡°In the Mood¡± is also an amalgamation, a ¡°mash-up¡±
before the term was coined. It arrived at its creation via the mixture and integration of
three or four different riffs from various earlier works.
Its earliest elements can be found in ¡°Clarinet Getaway,¡± from 1925, recorded by Jimmy
O¡¯Bryant, an Arkansas bandleader. For his Paramount label instrumental, O¡¯Bryant was part of
a four-person ensemble, featuring a clarinet (played by O¡¯Bryant), a piano, coronet and
washboard.
Five years later, the jazz piece ¡°Tar Paper Stomp¡± by Joseph ¡°Wingy¡± Manone, from 1930, beget
¡°In the Mood¡¯s¡± signature musical phrase. It was released on the Champion label, credited to
Barbeque Joe and his Hot Dogs, Manone¡¯s name for his performing group.
Meanwhile, ¡°In the Mood¡¯s¡± catchy, repetitive bass line was first heard in Fletcher Henderson¡¯s
¡°Hot and Anxious¡± from 1931. Henderson¡¯s tune, as played by his popular orchestra, was
arranged by Fletcher¡¯s brother, Horace Henderson. ¡°Hot and Anxious¡± would also be recorded
by Don Redman and his outfit in 1932. The Redman version contains scattered bits of scat
singing, but no lyrics, per se. (Additionally: in 1938, Joe Marsala and his Chicagoans recorded
a song titled ¡°Hot String Beans.¡± It featured a young Buddy Rich on drums and it, too, bears
more than a passing resemblance to ¡°In the Mood.¡±)
Finally, Joe Garland, a sax player mainly, would sit down and take all these various strands and
weave them together into a work he titled ¡°There¡¯s a Rhythm in Harlem.¡± Garland and his band,
which included J.C. Higginbotham, Henry ¡°Red¡± Allen, and Edgar Hayes, recorded this
particular joint for Columbia in 1935. A little later, when Garland and Hayes broke away from
their earlier group to form another orchestra, Garland brought ¡°Rhythm¡± with him eventually
refining it and expanding it into the work we know today as ¡°In the Mood.¡± Garland copyrighted
the new tune in June 1938, the same year it was recorded by Edgar Hayes and his Orchestra for
the Decca label.
(An interesting, side-by-side audio comparison of ¡°Tar Paper Stomp,¡± ¡°Hot and Anxious,¡± and
¡°There¡¯s a Rhythm,¡± along with ¡°In the Mood,¡± can be found on Youtube at
.)
As pointed out by music historian Dennis Spragg, up until this time almost alll the fragments of
¡°In the Mood¡± had been composed and performed by African-American artists, thereby limiting
their radio airplay and record sales. Eventually, seeking wider exposure, Garland would begin to
pitch the memorable tune to various white bandleaders. Originally, he approached music
maestro Artie Shaw but the new work¡¯s length¡ªrunning about six minutes in total¡ªprevented
Shaw from being able to record it (three and half minutes was then the norm for 78rpm records).
Shaw did however occasionally play it on radio, though at a slightly slower tempo than Glenn
Miller would eventually reproduce it.
With Shaw largely taking a pass, Glenn Miller came to ¡°Mood¡± next. He assigned it to arranger
Eddie Durham who toyed with its arrangement until he arrived at a final, shortened but souped
up version. In his thorough biography of the Glenn Miller, author George Thomas Simon
deconstructs some of Miller and company¡¯s augmentation of what would become their signature
tune:
The Shaw version starts off with the familiar twelve-bar sax riff, played twice. Then
follows the next theme, which in the Miller version consists of two similar eight-bar
phrases repeated¡. But in the Shaw version those sixteen bars comprise only the first
half of a full thirty-two-bar chorus, which, following those sixteen bars, goes into another
eight-bar theme as a release and returns to the original eight bars. What Glenn did was
cut out the eight-bar release and the final eight bars, reducing that thirty-two-bar chorus
to a series of simple sixteen-bar phrases.
Miller and company played their incarnation of ¡°In the Mood¡± for the first time on July 26, 1939
at a casino ballroom in Rochelle, New York. They would come to record it about a month later,
at the Victor Studios in New York City, on August 1, 1939. Miller¡¯s version utilized his
trademark trombone punctuating, echoing, the song¡¯s signature refrain. It would be a bouncy
combo¡ªperfect to accompany the jitterbug.
Miller¡¯s ¡°In the Mood¡± (RCA
B-10416-A), when
released in July of 1940, and no doubt aided by its high energy feel and slightly risqu¨¦ title,
became a success with audiences. It would go on to be broadcast on 62 occasions by Glenn
Miller and his Orchestra on their CBS program ¡°Chesterfield Moonlight Serenade,¡± on ¡°Coca
Cola Spotlight Bands,¡± and on remote broadcasts for NBC and Mutual.
¡°In the Mood¡± proved to have staying power even then. Soon after its debut, everywhere you
turned, Americans were awash in the ¡°Mood.¡± Though Miller never recorded the song with the
Razaf lyrics (¡°Who¡¯s the lovin¡¯ daddy with the beautiful eyes/What a pair o¡¯ lips, I¡¯d like to try
¡®em on for size.¡±), other bands did. The first was, interestingly, also for RCA Records. In
November 1939, that label released a version with singing provided by the Four King Sisters.
Meanwhile, songstress Paula Kelly sang ¡°In the Mood¡± accompanied by Al Donahue and his
Orchestra also that same year for a Vocalion (Columbia) release. By the end of 1940, there
would be six major label versions of ¡°In the Mood¡± somewhere in circulation.
After its inaugural release, Miller¡¯s ¡°Mood¡± would pop up again in the film ¡°Sun Valley
Serenade,¡± a Sonja Henie extravaganza released in 1941 in which Miller and his band are
featured. And the song would¡ªremarkably¡ªclimb back up various music charts in 1943.
Though the music was strong enough to stand on its own¡ªand it did¡ªthe occasional addition of
the song¡¯s lyrics only lengthened ¡°In the Mood¡¯s¡± life.
Big and brassy with a high-octane beat that prefigures rock and roll, ¡°In the Mood¡± is one of
those songs that manages to be both of the era yet oddly timeless. When listened to today, while
it sounds very big band, it also retains a stunning modernity. Certainly the song¡¯s universal
appeal is attested to by the variety of artists who have covered (and continue to cover) it, with or
without lyrics. Some of them: the Andrew Sisters, Brian Seltzer, Bette Midler (during Miss
M.¡¯s ¡°vintage¡± period which also saw her cover of ¡°Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy¡±), Benny
Goodman, Gene Krupa, Taco, Jimmy C. Newman (a Cajun/country mix), Ernie Fields (whose
1959 version peaked at #4 on the charts), and Roy Conniff, not to mention every latter-day big
band orchestra ever to strap on some suits and a sax. Country song parodist Ray Stevens (posing
as The Henhouse Five Plus Two) had a hit with ¡°In the Mood¡± when he recorded a group of
¡°chickens¡± who ¡°clucked¡± their way through its bars in 1977. Also known as ¡°The Cluck-Cluck
Version,¡± Steven¡¯s endeavor reached number 40 on the Billboard charts in February of that year.
Along with often being on the charts, ¡°In the Mood¡± has often been heard in the movies too.
Besides ¡°Sun Valley¡± and beside figuring prominently¡ªand not surprisingly¡ªin the film ¡°The
Glenn Miller Story¡± starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson from 1954, ¡°In the Mood¡± has
also been worked into a variety of other big screen and small screen endeavors. For a time, the
selection seemed to be the go-to tune for any movie or TV show wanting to invoke the 1940s-which has, at times, brought it close to clich¨¦. To whit: ¡°In the Mood¡± can be heard in Woody
Allen¡¯s ¡°Radio Days¡± as well as in ¡°Hope and Glory¡±; ¡°The Philadelphia Experiment¡±; ¡°Wild at
Heart¡±; ¡°The Radioland Murders¡±; ¡°Shining Through¡±; ¡°The Black Dahlia¡±; ¡°1941¡±; ¡°The Way
We Were¡± and even in such surprising places as ¡°90210,¡± ¡°Dr. Who,¡± ¡°The Simpsons,¡± and
¡°Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.¡± Obviously as well it was heard throughout the
film ¡°In the Mood,¡± the slightly enhanced story of infamous ¡°Woo-Woo Kid¡± Sonny Wisecarver,
which starred a young Patrick Dempsey.
If ¡°In the Mood¡± made Miller hugely popular¡ªto the point where he and his band almost got
sick of playing it--it did not make him rich. Still bound by an old ¡°no-royalties¡± clause in his
recording contract, Miller earned only $175 for his often-resurrected rendition. Years later,
however, his estate was able to wrangle a revised royalty agreement, allowing Miller¡¯s heirs to
reap some of the song¡¯s ample proceeds.
Unfortunately, Miller¡¯s career was an abbreviated one. An active member of the war effort
during World War II, Miller was flying from England to France to do a show for servicemen in
December of 1944 when his plane disappeared over the English Channel. His body has never
been recovered. In 1945, Miller was posthumously awarded a bronze star for his service to his
country.
Despite a tragically short life, Miller¡¯s legacy is a cache of popular and timeless tunes. They
include: ¡°Chattanooga Choo Choo,¡± ¡°Tuxedo Junction,¡± ¡°Moonlight Serenade¡± and
¡°Pennsylvania 6-500.¡± And, of course, ¡°In the Mood,¡± a song which has proved to be as
enduring as it is evocative.
Cary O¡¯Dell is with the motion picture, broadcast and recorded sound division of the Library of
Congress. He is the author of the books ¡°June Cleaver Was a Feminist!¡± (2014) and ¡°Women
Pioneers in Television¡± (1997). He also served as assistant editor of ¡°The Concise
Encyclopedia of American Radio¡± (2009) and ¡°The Biographical Encyclopedia of American
Radio¡± (2010).
Note: I am grateful to both Dennis Spragg, of the Glenn Miller Trust, and Alan Cass, of the
Glenn Miller Archive at the University of Colorado, for their invaluable assistance with this
essay.
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